Brics summit joint statement takes aim at US war, tariffs and sanctions

Brics leaders issued a joint statement expressing concern over the West Asia conflict while criticising unilateralism, tariffs and sanctions, without naming the US

By Dan Strumpf, Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Ilya Arkhipov and Josh Xiao

 

Leaders of emerging powers including Russia and Iran projected a united front at a weekend summit in New Delhi, with a joint statement that targeted a US-launched war in the West Asia, Washington’s tariff campaign and its sanctions policy.

 

The US and President Donald Trump were not mentioned by name, but were in the sights of a 45-page joint communique issued by the 10 Brics nations, which include both friends and foes of Washington.

 

The statement called for “maximum restraint” by nations involved in the West Asia conflict and expressed “deep concern” over its escalation. It also condemned “deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities.”

 

The wording, hammered out into the early hours of Saturday, represented a stark appeal for a grouping whose members hold wildly divergent positions in the conflict launched by the US and Israel against Iran more than six months ago — with Tehran on one end and the UAE and Saudi Arabia, not yet a full Brics member, on the other. China and India are major oil importers, directly impacted by the disruption in energy flows from the region.

 

“There is obvious frustration with Trumpism and the many manifestations of that — unilateralism, the snubbing of the multilateral institutional order, the tariff assault, the neglect of rules,” said Ashok Malik, partner and chair of the India practice at the Asia Group.

 

The statement was “carefully drafted so as not to take sides between Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE while leaving everyone with something to go home with,” he added.

 

In comments on Sunday as the meeting drew to a close, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to emphasize cooperation despite “different realities.”

 

“The Global South’s trust in Brics has steadily increased because its voice is heard in the grouping, its development experience is respected, and solutions are prepared in consultation with it,” he told attendees. 

 

The war in the Persian Gulf has threatened to create new fissures among the Brics members. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian set the tone with a fiery speech on Friday in which he vowed his country wouldn’t surrender.

 

“They thought that like Venezuela they could conquer our country within 24 hours,” Pezeshkian said in an interview with India Today television. “It failed.”

 

But in spite of direct threats from Washington — which has promised sanctions against any country helping Iran and warned groups like Brics against teaming up to oppose US interests — the 10-strong bloc pushed back against Washington’s punitive measures and a global order in which emerging economies say they are insufficiently represented.

 

“We strive to advance not by opposing anyone, but by taking everyone along,” Modi told leaders. “Now is the time for us to translate our unity and consensus within Brics into tangible results on the global stage.”

 

The summit marked a high point for Modi, who has sought to use his country’s year-long presidency of the Brics group to advance a broader agenda for the Global South.

 

India’s ability to negotiate with countries on opposite sides of multiple conflicts, including Iran and Israel, has helped to bridge differences within the bloc, according to diplomats with direct knowledge of the discussion, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. 

 

Divisions were particularly acute between Iran and the UAE, the people said, with Tehran seeking a clear condemnation of the US and Israel. That was contested by the UAE, a US ally, which sought to condemn Iran for its drone and missile strikes against the Gulf kingdom. 

 

At a media briefing on Saturday, Sudhakar Dalela, secretary of economic relations at the Ministry of External Relations, said discussions among Brics members evolve until consensus is reached. 

 

“We are very happy that we have a agreed approach on West Asia and the center piece of that approach is that we all believe dialog and diplomacy should be the guiding parameter to addressing any conflict,” he said.

 

The West Asia war has presented a thorny challenge to a unified front from the Brics this year. At a meeting of foreign ministers in New Delhi in May the group did not come to a consensus around a joint statement, a failure India blamed on “differing views among some members” over the West Asia war. 

 

The summit also gave Russia’s Vladimir Putin an opportunity to reinforce ties with Modi and Xi just two weeks after the three leaders met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Kyrgyzstan. Putin had an official bilateral meeting with Modi, and a conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Brics forum, according to the Kremlin. Both Modi and Xi asked the Russian leader in detail about efforts to settle the Ukraine conflict and offered their help in finding a solution to the problem, said Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

 

“The paradox is that Putin’s policies, however you look at them, have not resulted in Russia’s isolation,” said Alexey Maslov, director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University. “On the contrary, a rather unusual coalition of countries has formed around Russia, supporting ideas associated with the Global South and security.”

China-India Ties

Modi, featured on Brics posters all around Delhi, has made the most of the gathering, but the meeting also offered an opportunity for other nations to flex their diplomatic clout, not least China, the bloc’s dominant economic power and Russia, which has been isolated for years from the US and Europe.

 

Xi added heft to the gathering — he missed last year’s Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro. This has also been his first visit to India in seven years, the latest sign of a tentative rapprochement with India following a deadly border clash in 2020. 

 

“China and India are partners, not rivals,” representing “each other’s development opportunities, not threats,” Xi said in comments carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.

 

Xi urged Brics members “to stand on the right side of the history” and be a pioneer in maintaining peace and reforming global governance. He also proposed an open-source artificial intelligence “special zone” for Brics members, to support the development and application of large language models.